This invention relates to a flow divider and more particularly to apparatus for receiving liquid having solid material suspended or entrained therein and for discharging the liquid into plural passages for delivery from the apparatus through a plurality of discharge passages.
An example of the field of use of the present apparatus is in feeding liquid suspensions or slurries to screening equipment where it is desired to discharge the liquid material at several locations along a vibrating screen or on more than one screen or both. Conventional flow dividers, known in the art as "splitters", comprise circular tanks wherein the liquid or slurry is introduced tangentially in the upper portion of the tank and undergoes a cyclonic mixing as it descends along the circular wall of the tank.
In such splitters the liquid level in the tank is above the tangential inlet passage so that the inlet flow tends to blend into the body of liquid in the tank in a cyclonic mixing action. In this type of splitter or flow divider a number of tangential discharge passages are disposed in a common horizontal plane near the bottom of the tank or at least below the tangential inlet passage.
With conventional splitters or flow dividers of the foregoing type, even though equal quantities of liquid discharge from the several discharge passages, it appears that the first discharge passage encountered by the swirling liquid suspension or slurry receives liquid containing the highest percentage of solid material while the last discharge passage in series receives liquid containing the least percentage of solid material.
This may be due to a centrifugal separation action which takes place during the cyclonic swirling of the material between the inlet passage and the several discharge passages. Whatever the reason, in such apparatus I have found that the first discharge passage contains a greater quantity of solid material with the quantity of solid material diminishing progressively to the last in the series of discharge passages. This of course results in the solid material being dispensed in unequal quantities from the several discharge passages.
In the case where the material is being discharged to several points on a vibrating screen or to several vibrating screens, or both, the solid material to be screened is not uniformly distributed on the screen or screens with an obvious inefficiency of operation. Similar objections would arise when the material is being divided up by the flow divider for other purposes.